Visitors to Norwich on Sunday celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at downtown bars, showing off their green apparel and toasting with traditional Irish beers.

Even before revelers got to the Harp and Dragon Pub, the smell of corned beef brisket, bacon and cabbage greeted them as cooks served meals from underneath a streetside tent.

At an outdoor table shortly before noon, Ryan Trainor, of Stonington, clinked plastic cups of Guinness stout with friends Don Gaunt and Mike Blais, visiting from Rhode Island. Their celebration started Saturday and continued into Sunday afternoon.

“We’re starting here (the Harp and Dragon), and we’ll probably finish here,” Trainor said. “We’ll bounce around, but it all starts and ends here. It’s the best place to be on St. Patrick’s Day.”

Dave Nelson, of Dover, N.H., ducked out of the crowded bar for some corned beef, which he said is an integral part of his St. Patrick’s Day tradition of Irish beer, corned beef and Irish music.

He celebrated inside with his wife and some friends and showed off a dime-sized shamrock tattoo on his chest.

“I’m Swedish by birth, but today, everybody’s Irish,” he said.

Harp and Dragon, along with Billy Wilson’s Ageing Still on Broadway and Chacer’s Bar and Grill on Franklin Street, got a head-start on the holiday a week ago, hosting an Irish-themed “St. Practice Day” bar crawl on March 10.

Practice made perfect for three friends celebrating at Chacer’s on Sunday. The bar is in the former home of Wilson’s Saloon, where the Irish car bomb drink, a popular challenge for St. Patrick’s Day revelers, was invented on St. Patrick’s Day 1979, according to numerous bartending websites. Credit for the drink goes to Charles Oat, the owner of the Connecticut School of Bartending next door.

It wasn’t until he’d already had three of them that Norwich native and Pawcatuck resident Jeff Ossont learned of the drink’s origin. It’s just one more way the city “keeps it real,” he said.

“I’ve been to Boston, Hartford, New Haven, New London, Mystic — Norwich keeps it real,” he said.

Ossont was at Chacer’s on Sunday with his roommate, Ryan Christopher, and Christopher’s girlfriend, Carli Bible, of Mystic. The three agreed: St. Patrick’s Day is one of the best days of the year.

It’s right up there with Christmas and Thanksgiving, Ossont said, “because it brings friends together.”

“It’s one of those nice things in New England,” Christopher said, “the time’s changed, winter’s coming to close — it’s a sign of good things to come.”